


The Wishing Tree

by inspiritchingu



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-11 23:31:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10477005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inspiritchingu/pseuds/inspiritchingu
Summary: Myungsoo tells Sungjong a story about a wishing tree.





	

“Hyung,” Sungjong called though he was not really looking at his friend. He held a piece of wood that hung from a tree by a red string. Looking up, he searched for his friend amidst the garden filled with shrubs and other plants. Once he caught Myungsoo’s attention, he asked, “Do you want to make a wish with me?”

Myungsoo looked over to where Sungjong stood. He thought for a long second then, he shook his head as if to say no.

“You’re so boring,” Sungjong huffed squinting at Myungsoo. “Come on. When are we ever coming back here again? Let’s try it out.”

“No, Sungjong. Stop!” Myungsoo exclaimed as he ran to Sungjong who was about to rip off one of the wooden pieces. “You can’t take that off.”

“I was just going to look at it. I’m going to put it back after I see how they write it.”

“No!” Myungsoo was horrified. “Just don’t mess with it. Besides, you shouldn’t read other people’s wishes.”

“But I don’t even know how I should write it,” Sungjong protested. “Where do they put their names, and should I write it in Hanja?”

“No! Don’t write your name on that!”

“Myungsoo hyung,” Sungjong looked at Myungsoo squarely. “Calm down. Stop shouting.”

“I’m sorry,” Myungsoo apologized after a while. He looked around and saw that other tourists were not around. He was a bit thankful for that.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“But I haven’t made my wish yet.”

“You really don’t want to do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because,” Myungsoo responded with wide eyes looking at Sungjong as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Sungjong just looked back at him.

“The spirits. They’re all around us. It’s not safe.”

Sungjong gave him a look.

“Listen to me,” Myungsoo whispered then, walked away from the temple with the wishing tree. When Sungjong did not say anything but also did not move an inch to follow him, Myungsoo looked back. Exasperated, he said, “We can’t stay too long. They might see as a nuisance.”

“I mean,” Sungjong stated. “It’s 2017. Who believes in spirits?”

“That’s rich coming from someone who wanted to make a wish on a tree.”

“Come on, hyung. I just wanted to make memories.”

“What are you going to offer the tree for your wish then?”

“What do you mean offer? I’m just going to hang my wish on the tree.”

Myungsoo looked like he wanted to scream, but instead, he went back and sat on the ground. “Okay, you don’t wanna move?”

Sungjong stood his ground and shook his head.

“I’m going to tell you a story.”

Sungjong looked hesitant but eventually, he sat on a rock nearby Myungsoo and said, “Okay.”

“I knew a friend. His name was Woohyun.”

“Was?” Sungjong asked.

“Just let me tell this story. Don’t interrupt me. We need to leave before it gets dark.”

Sungjong nodded.

“Woohyun was my friend in university. He was a hopeless romantic. He believed in fate because his name was Woohyun.”

Sungjong interrupted again. “But his name means the right side of a ship. What does that have to do with fate?”

Myungsoo answered him despite looking annoyed. “Because if you mispronounce his name, it would mean coincidence. And because his name isn’t coincidence, he thought there was some reason behind it.”

Sungjong wanted to laugh, but he kept it in and just nodded.

“He’s dumb. Anyway, he was seriously in love with Sunggyu hyung. Sunggyu hyung was really cool and really smart. He was our sunbae from the same department, and he was actually great. Woohyun was so maddeningly in love with him. He claimed he heard music whenever Sunggyu hyung walked past him. He said, ‘It can’t just be coincidence that we’re in the same department.’ And he did everything so Sunggyu hyung would notice him. He talked so loudly, and he would volunteer for every single thing. He would also boast about these things he didn’t have like his way of making jokes, but he also just boasted a lot in general.”

“Let me guess. This Sunggyu hyung of yours got annoyed?”

“Yeah, he hated Woohyun. He wanted to avoid him, but Woohyun was so persistent. The thing is that he never really confessed to Sunggyu hyung. He was just always in Sunggyu hyung’s face all the time.

“So, it was almost Sunggyu hyung’s graduation, and Woohyun was really losing it. There was this tree inside the campus. It was a wishing tree; at least, that was what everyone called it. It was even older than the university, and it was really big.” Myungsoo spread his arms wide to show the span of the tree. “The students go there to make wishes about their grades, money, and everything. Woohyun went there, and he made a wish. They said that if you throw your wish at the tree and the paper gets caught in one of the branches, it means that the tree will grant the wish. If one way or another, it falls off the branch or if it doesn’t even get caught in a branch, it means your wish is too greedy and the tree won’t grant it. So, Woohyun threw his wish, but it always missed. Woohyun was really at his wit’s end so he climbed up the tree. He was so mad at that time, he even threw away the other papers stuck on the tree. And then, he stuck his paper as deep into a cleavage of a branch as he could.”

“Okay, hyung. But my intentions aren’t that wild. I just want to make a simple wish.”

Myungsoo proceeded with his story despite Sungjong’s interruption. “The very next day, Sunggyu hyung was looking for Woohyun. Right in front of everyone, he kissed Woohyun, and he even confessed that he liked Woohyun from the start and that he was just shy to admit it. Woohyun was so happy.

“I asked him what he did, and he got offended. He said that Sunggyu hyung really loved him, and I shouldn’t ruin their happiness. I warned him about the tree, but he just waved me off. I wanted to tell him that if he wished on the tree, he should have been respectful to the spirit of the tree and he should give an offering in exchange for his wish. It doesn’t have to be of equal value because the spirits don’t value things the same way humans do. But he just waved me off so I couldn’t tell him that right away.

“Students who passed because of the tree and didn’t give any fruit or anything in exchange even after their wish was granted had someone in their family die or later on, they experienced misfortune.”

“So what happened to Woohyun?”

“Woohyun didn’t write his name on the paper so the spirit didn’t have any control over him.”

“But Woohyun wrote Sunggyu-ssi’s name?” Sungjong asked with both astonishment and horror mixing in his face.

Myungsoo nodded. “The spirit took Sunggyu hyung.”

“What do you mean, hyung? So, Sunggyu-ssi died?”

“No, I don’t know. Well, he might as well be. That might be better.”

“What do you mean?”

“The spirit took Sunggyu and enslaved him to pay for Woohyun’s wish.”

“What happened?”

“They were together, and the spirit came as mist. It said Sunggyu hyung’s name. The last thing Woohyun saw was Sunggyu hyung in chains made of wood. Woohyun called me. At first he was incoherent, but he told me what he did and what was happening. So, I came running.

“I also didn’t know what to do. But I wanted to help. They were my friends. I thought if we cut the tree, it would kill the spirit living in it and free Sunggyu hyung.

“I don’t know what I was thinking. I should’ve called my grandpa. He knew more about those sort of things.”

“Don’t blame yourself, hyung. You were just trying to help.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have tried. I only made things worse.”

“Why? What happened instead?”

“As we were chopping the tree down, the air felt heavier and heavier. Woohyun was getting more and more confused. He started to ask me what we were doing. Then, he started to forget who I was. I found out later on that a lot of the students died from heart attack in their sleep that night. Alumni, too.”

Sungjong did not know what to say to console his friend, and Myungsoo did not want to continue on with the story. Darkness was already falling, and they should already leave. Neither Myungsoo and Sungjong noticed, however. They were both stuck in an air of misery.

“Do you need that?” Someone asked.

When Myungsoo looked up, he saw the familiar face of the sunbae he once adored. This version of Sunggyu was all dressed in white. He had an odd blurry glow around him like a mirage in the desert. It was an odd comparison for Myungsoo because it made it seem as if Myungsoo was hallucinating.

“Sunggyu hyung?” Myungsoo asked.

“Do you need that?” The one who asked before—the one Myungsoo thought was his sunbae—repeated.

Myungsoo turned to look at Sungjong, but Sungjong was no longer there. Instead, there was a small brightly glowing ball on top of the rock Sungjong was sitting at a while ago.

“If you don’t need that, I’m going to take it,” The one who looked like Sunggyu continued to say. “Master has a collection of humans’ lost thoughts. If I collect a lot, Master will let me see my lover again.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to try my hand at this kind of story telling. Please share your thoughts or Sunggyu will come and collect them for me.


End file.
